


paint stains and little marks.

by fypical



Series: Thinking Outrageously [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Ace Cas, Asexual Castiel, Demisexual Gabriel, Gen, M/M, Queerplatonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-22
Updated: 2014-02-22
Packaged: 2018-01-13 08:30:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1219531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fypical/pseuds/fypical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While much of what Castiel and Gabriel do as angels are beyond human comprehension, it would seem that humans also have this sort of relationship – it’s comforting on a level that Castiel hasn’t explored, that he isn’t completely otherworldly and inhuman. (Or, Gabriel and Castiel are queerplatonic partners wrapped around each other, both physically and metaphysically.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	paint stains and little marks.

**Author's Note:**

> For Peggy.

Gabriel is more tactile than most angels – Castiel has a theory that it is because he’s been so long in a vessel that he prefers to touch physically rather than metaphysically.

 

Castiel doesn’t mind physical touch (in fact he usually enjoys it), but it’s Gabriel’s Grace curled around his own that he likes best. It’s a reminder of the home they’ve both left behind them – a reminder that he isn’t alone. Gabriel is good in that way; the Winchesters do their best to make him feel welcome, but they have their ways and expectations, and Castiel has trouble meeting some of them. Dean tries to take him out to bars and match him with women – and on one memorable occasion, men – but the nights tend to end better for Dean than they do for Castiel, since Dean is the only one really interested in the whole operation in the first place.

 

Sam isn’t quite as insistent; he understands a little better than Dean, Castiel thinks. Gabriel’s been helpful in that way, as well, even if neither he nor Sam actually talks about their almost-relationship. But when Castiel shows up at the bunker again, the look Sam gives him is only pitying insofar as he had to find his own way home; he knows that it isn’t by accident that Castiel hasn’t brought anyone home.

 

The only real flaw Castiel’s found in humanity in all his time watching them is that so many of them assume that love and romance are one and the same. That Gabriel loves humanity does not mean that he wishes to be in a romantic relationship with over seven billion people, yet if Castiel were to say that he loves the Winchesters – and he does – there would undoubtedly be uncomfortable questions about how that all works.

 

He knows. He’s experienced it.

 

Gabriel had launched into what had promised to be a long-winded explanation when Castiel had tentatively broached the subject with him – it had taken a while for them to stop tiptoeing around one another as if they were both made of glass – and while Castiel is incontrovertibly the younger brother, it isn’t something he enjoys being reminded of. He’d stopped Gabriel halfway through what seemed to be a complex, memorized speech about sexual attraction, because he didn’t think there was much point in hearing an explanation about something he didn’t experience.

 

Gabriel had shoved three books into his hands anyway, but hadn’t treated the conversation like Castiel was strange or abnormal. He’s fairly sure it’s possible that Gabriel knew before he did, considering how nonchalant Gabriel had been about the whole thing. Castiel doesn’t remember much from before Lucifer’s Fall – he’d barely been old enough to fight at the time, but everyone had been enlisted – but he supposes that the easy support and acceptance that Gabriel is showing him isn’t likely to have been a result of his time as a homicidal pagan god.

 

“How is Sam?” he asks, and doesn’t miss that Gabriel goes an interesting shade of pink. One of the side effects of their respective Graces being wrapped around each other the way they are is that it’s difficult to hide things from one another. It’s not as thought they have much to hide, but Gabriel is ten kinds of stubborn and doesn’t tend to open up easily. Most questions about his personal life go unanswered, but it’s been nice to watch he and Sam fumble their way through. Castiel is confident in them both, even if Gabriel acts like a frightened bird about it.

 

“He’s fine,” Gabriel mumbles, but doesn’t answer further; possibly he doesn’t want to talk about it, but it’s also entirely possible that this is one of the rare times that Gabriel is content not to talk constantly. Castiel doesn’t push it – they are both very good at not pushing one another’s boundaries, which is something of a miracle considering how many other boundaries they’ve pushed individually.

 

He can’t quite answer why he goes along with Dean’s attempts to find him sex even to himself; he isn’t uncomfortable with it, but he supposes he should probably stop giving Dean false hope. He knows that Dean knows that sex is not the be-all and end-all of affection – or at least, he knows Dean knows this isn’t the case for angels, because Dean has walked in on he and Gabriel like this. The reaction had been rather a non-reaction; Castiel suspects Dean had taken Gabriel aside in an attempt to intimidate him, but he hasn’t brought it up otherwise. He also suspects Sam had intervened – Sam understands Gabriel better than Dean (in many ways) and Castiel knows Gabriel’s explained nearly everything to Sam.

 

Gabriel shoves a little closer in the enormous bed he somehow managed to fit into the third bedroom of the bunker – it’s nobody’s bedroom, really, neither of them have claimed it definitively, but there’s something unspoken that has it empty unless Castiel and Gabriel are curled up there. His face is in the crook of Castiel’s neck – it’s like sharing a bed with an overaffectionate cat.

 

“We’re having sex,” Gabriel mentions suddenly, offhand, but Castiel knows that it’s a bigger deal than Gabriel is admitting. As far as Castiel knows of his brother’s sexual and romantic history – and it’s more than he thinks is probably strictly appropriate by human standards, but so is hunting and killing monsters, and that hasn’t stopped the Winchesters – Sam is the first person in a long time with whom Gabriel has been sexual. He supposes it must be difficult for him to form the necessary bonds considering Gabriel trusts nearly nobody, and the fact that Gabriel has confided it is perhaps larger to Castiel than it is to Gabriel. He likely would have discovered anyway – there don’t seem to be any secrets between them, or indeed in the bunker on the whole – but to be told is a sign that he is one of the few that Gabriel does trust. Castiel nods, brushing his fingers absently over the back of Gabriel’s neck.

 

He has never had an issue with Sam and Dean knowing about the nature of his relationship with Gabriel – in fact, they are among the few who have understood it. Brotherhood doesn’t work the same way among angels as it does among humans, Castiel has learned, but the Winchesters don’t work quite the same way as most humans in any case, so upon Gabriel’s announcement and ensuing encyclopaedic explanation of it, they’d just shrugged in their odd synchronized way. It had been a relief, and he knows that Gabriel had been thrilled to be able to sprawl all over Castiel outside of the guest room.  Gabriel had still left various informative note all over the bunker, with ‘queerplatonic’ underlined three times, for a week afterward.

 

While much of what Castiel and Gabriel do as angels are beyond human comprehension, it would seem that humans also have this sort of relationship – it’s comforting on a level that Castiel hasn’t explored, that he isn’t completely otherworldly (at least not in this way). Gabriel makes a vaguely annoyed huff of sound - undoubtedly he's overheard that particular thought - and kisses Castiel's neck; Castiel feels his cheeks flush. Gabriel knows it's something he likes, and even if Castiel knows it's meant to take his mind off the fact that he is, ultimately, inhuman (it doesn't seem to matter that Gabriel is, too, sometimes) he's still susceptible to it. Gabriel laughs a little, then stills again, sighing out and relaxing in a way Castiel knows is more real than the easy demeanour Gabriel usually has up like a shield.

 

Castiel closes his eyes and lets himself drift, his fingers in Gabriel’s hair and his brother’s Grace curled comfortably around his. 

**Author's Note:**

> This began as a oneshot fic featuring asexual/aromantic Castiel and demisexual/panromantic Gabriel, and has sort of morphed into what is likely to become a queerness-themed SPN series of which this is the first part. We'll see where it goes; I'm excited for it! 
> 
> (Disclaimer: I am a cis bisexual panromantic woman; if there are any issues in this fic or any fics in the series, do please let me know and I will do my best to correct them!)


End file.
